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With a football World Cup and the Olympic Games coming up in the next four years, Brazil will have to be
able to deal with ambush marketing, but robust systems are not yet in place, says Philippe Bhering.

Major sporting events have attracted increasing economic and social attention over recent decades. Companies have recognised that sponsoring major sporting events offers a lucrative and fruitful platform for communication.

This, in turn, has led to a considerable increase in the number of companies lending their support to such events. In general terms, their goal is to transfer some of the attention paid to a major event, and the prestige attached to it, to their own goods and/or services or to their company generally.

Event organisers are, naturally, keen to safeguard their own interests and the financial interests of the sponsors (particularly in view of the significant expense incurred by the latter in acquiring exclusive rights of association with the events). On the other hand, there are many companies intent on deriving economic profit from major events without entering into a sponsorship agreement.